Marked
by Total Obsessive Bookworm
Summary: Okay, this is just basically a fanfic based on Stark's life before he came to Tulsa, starting from when he gets Marked, 4 years before Zoey. He's 15, coz I dunno how old he is in Tempted. I want to make this long, but first tell me if I should continue!
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, so I'll probably won't be updating too often on this, because of my othe HoN story, Burned. So I haven't given this story much thought, but I didn't give Burned much thought either and it was my most successful fanfic (well, my other two aren't exactly great. One is a songfic and the other is going to be long, but I haven't started it yet. I will soon, though. At the moment there's only A/N at the start :P)**

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"Where are you going?" my mom practically screamed at me as I reached for the door handle.

"To Nathan's house," I called back, trying not to lose my patience with my always drunk mother.

"No you're not, James. It's ten o'clock. You're staying here, okay?" Her words were slurred.

"Okay," I said, opening the door and slamming it behind me. I honestly don't think she noticed. She was probably already passed out. I sighed. I was a fifteen year old kid who was burdened with the job of looking after his mom since he was eleven. That's when it all happened. When - no. I wouldn't think of that right now. I was going to an awesome party where there would be loads of hot girls, Nathan had said.

I smiled. Tonight was going to be great. Nathan's parents were out of town for the whole weekend, and they actually trusted their son - I mean, come on. Nathan has been doing drugs since forever, and they haven't even noticed. I was almost halfway to Nathan's house. I smiled as I remembered when we were eight years old, and we measured the exact distance between our houses.

"James Stark! Night has chosen thee; thy death will be thy birth. Night calls to thee; hearken to Her sweet voice. Your destiny awaits you at the House of Night!" said a tall pale man, stepping out in front of me. Oh, God. I knew who he was - a tracker. I had seen loads of kids get Marked at school before. I just never thought it would happen to me.

I was happy. Should I have been happy? Probably not. But all I could think of was how I'd be free from the task of looking after my mom all my life. Now I would be free!

But, the bad side: I would be a vampyre, I would have to live at Hell High, and I would probably have to, like, suck people's blood. Great.

And I wouldn't be able to see my best friend, Nathan. He was going to be mad when he found out I'd been Marked. That was what I was worrying about when I passed out.

***

I woke up in Nathan's front room. Jeesh, had I passed out on the couch or something? Godsake, why didn't Nathan wake me up? I looked around and saw that there was no one with me. It must be really late, then. Everybody had gone home. Was Nathan even awake?

"Here. Drink this," Nathan said, as if replying to my thoughts. I jumped and turned to see him holding a glass of water. I grabbed it and gulped it down immediately.

"What time is it?" I asked, feeling a headache coming on.

"Half eleven," Nathan said, watching me carefully.

I laughed. "Party must have sucked. Why'd everyone leave so early?"

"Well, to be honest they were kinda creeped out by that _thing_ on your forehead."

"That thing?" I felt my forehead self conciously.

Nathan sighed. "Go look at yourself in the mirror."

I handed him the empty glass and walked mechanically to the downstairs bathroom. I walked to the mirror and looked at myself carefully. At first my vision was kinda blurry and I couldn't see much, but then I saw the sapphire outline of a crescent moon shape right in the middle of my forehead. Then it all came rushing back and I nearly fainted again.

"James?" Nathan asked from the doorway. "You were Marked."

It wasn't a question, but I nodded anyway. "How did you find me? I thought I passed out after . . . after it happened."

"Yeah, you did. Me and Mike went looking for you because you never showed up, and found you about an hour ago. We brought you back here and everyone besides Mike left."

Shakily, I touched the tattoo that forever Marked me as a vampyre. Or whetever you were _before_ you became a vampyre first, I guess. That is, _if_ I became a vampyre . . .

"Nathan, what if I die?" I asked suddenly, my voice surprisingly strong.

"What? You won't. We just have to get you to a the House of Night. Okay?"

"That's not what I mean! What if - ?"

"James, shut _up_ for once. We need to tell your mom what happened and then we need to get you to the House of Night."

I gritted my teeth. "Don't bother telling _her_."

"James," Nathan said gently, "You need to tell her. No matter what, she's your mom."

It was then I realized that he hadn't called me by my last name, Stark, like he usually did. Later I thought more about it, and decided that the matter was just too serious for the comfort of our childhood nicknames.

"No, she's not," I said through gritted teeth. "Nathan, just drive me to the House of Night, okay? I'll be fine then." Nathan was a full year older than me, so he was able to drive while I still couldn't.

"Dude, come on. You have to tell her."

I shook my head determindly. "No. I don't. I'll call her, if that makes you happy."

Nathan knew how stubborn I could be, and didn't argue. Instead he put his hand in his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. "Here," he said, then left me some privacy.

I dialled the number quickly, and, surprisingly, she answered.

"Hello?"

"Mom, it's me."

"James, I'm going to kill you. I told you not to go out, and you completely ignored me. When you get home - "

"I'm not going home, Mom," I said, trying to hold onto my patience. And sanity. "I've been Marked. I'm going to the House of Night."

There was a long, awkward pause. "Do you have to?"

"Yes, Mom, I have to. Unless you want me to die, in which case I'd be happy to go home tonight."

"What about your stuff? Don't you want it?"

"Well, maybe when you're sober you could drop my things over. If it's too much trouble, just ask Nathan. I'm sure he'd - " I couldn't finish. A great hacking cough took over my whole body. I felt so, so sick. Oh, God. I really did have to get to the House of Night, and fast. Lucky there was not too far from here.

"Mom, I've got to go. See ya." _Or not_ I thought as I hung up.

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**What do you think? Should I continue? Or not?**

**Last time I checked my House of Night books, the two names on the cover were P.C Cast and Kristin Cast. And since neither of those names are mine, I guess I still don't own the House of Night series. Ah, well. How bad? . . . ? XD**

**~Thanks for reading, please let me know if I should continue..**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks for reviewing! This is awesome! But I think I'll have to draw it out a bit because I need time to think about what could actually happen to him, I mean it's not like he was Chosen by Nyx like Zoey was or anything, and he hardly did anything as great as she did. But, however, life goes on. So I'll do what I can XD **

**And btw, I will update Burned soon, I just have to slow it down a bit atm, because I really need to think about what I'm going to do next. God, I'm soo original (not). I called the last one Burned, and this one Marked. I mean come on, I can't even think up my own bloody NAMES!**

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"Come on, Stark," Nathan said, using my nickname again. I got into his car and slammed the door.

"Jeez, calm down. No need to take your anger out on my car," he said lightly. And it wasn't like he was trying to cheer me up or anything. He actually sounded like he was genuinely worried about his car, not his best friend of ten years dying. I was kinda surprised. We were always extremely close, almost like brothers. Sometimes people actually assumed we were, though we looked nothing alike. He had green eyes, I had brown; he had long hair, I had short hair. He was really small, I was kinda tall. He was really tan, I was always kind of pale. Almost like I was destined to be a vampyre really, I guess.

"Stop, Nathan. Just get me to the damn school already or - " I coughed violently again. When I stopped Nathan looked worried.

"We've gotta get you to that school, Stark," he muttered, starting up the car.

"Yeah, that's what I just said, Einstein," I said as he pulled out of his driveway.

The rest of the journey was silent, apart from my occassional, hacking cough. Every time I _did_ cough, Nathan gave me a weird look, like he thought I was going to blow up any minute.

"Don't worry, I woudn't dare explode all over your precious car," I muttered once. He snorted, but other than that I got no reply.

***

When we pulled up at the school after a long, awkward journey, a tall woman with long, flowing black hair was standing by the door as if she was expecting us. She was totally pale, and she was kinda hot, though she was, like, at least ten years older than me.

"James Stark?" She asked it as a question, but it was obvious she already knew who I was. Hell, she probably knew my whole life story. Which wasn't a lot.

"That's me," I said after a long, throat throbbing cough. She smiled warmly.

"What took you so long, James?" she asked, sounding like the worried mother I never had.

"I dunno. I guess I fainted after the Tracker Marked me..." I trailed off.

She nodded knowingly. "Surprisingly, many people do."

"Yeah, I'll bet they do," I muttered. As I got closer to her, I noticed a sort of glow around her. It was really weird. It was pulsing, but it didn't look evil or anything, just like the warmth of a fire. She saw me looking kinda confused.

"Oh, sorry. That's just my gift."

"Gift?"

"My gift from Nyx, or goddess. I can kind of sense people's feelings."

"Really?"

"Yes, but it's not that simple. I only sense people's strong emotions when I'm really close to them. And if I concentrate on that person really hard. So I'm not that gifted, but with my gift I get this glow around me."

"Huh," was my genius response. She probably found it insulting when I stared, so I looked away, embarrassed. She just smiled again.

"So, James, my name is Achelois, after the Greek Moon Goddess."

"Interesting name," Nathan muttered.

"Indeed. It means, 'she who drives away pain.'"

"You'd think that'd be your gift then," I mumbled awkwardly. "You know, driving away pain."

She laughed. "Yes, I suppose you would. Now, James, has your coughing ceased?"

"Yeah," I said, just realizing it now.

"Good. It should stop when you're with vampyres."

"Well, thank God for that," I said.

Achelois smiled again. "Yes. Now, come with me and I will show you to the professor who has volunteered to be your mentor, Professor Chidsey." She gave Nathan a meaningful look.

"Alright, alright. I can take a hint. I'm outta here. See ya, James." Why had he called me James again? He really was acting strange. It was as if he thought of me as a different person since I had been Marked.

"Bye," I murmured.

Achelois smiled. "Come on, James. I'll show you to William, and than you will be in his care."

Nervously I followed Achelois into the Chicago House of Night, my new home.

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**I'm sooo so sorry, I know it's really short, but it's a wonder I've updated at all!! Thanks again for reviewing, and btw the reason I'm making Stark so different is because I'm thinking that he wasn't always the (totally awesome) way he is, and I'm going to make something happen to him (eventually) that will make him change a bit. Or maybe he will gradually over the four years. I'm not too sure yet :L**

**~Total Obsessive Bookworm**

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	3. Chapter 3

**Hey, just thought I should warn you guys that there's a spam email going around atm called 'Postcard'. If you open it, it gets all the information from you while you're on the computer, but once you turn it off it wipes out your entire hard drive beyond repair. Just warning you, okay? So whatever you do, don't open it. If you're wondering how in the hell I know this, my Computers teacher told me (lol).**

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I followed Achelois inside and we were immediately in a huge entrance hall. It looked really fancy and medieval. I was always interested in history so I noticed right away that the hall used the corbelling technique on the roof, like the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence or Newgrange in Ireland (which is at least five hundred years older than the pyramids in Egypt, meaning the pyramids are _not_ the oldest buildings in the world).

Achelois saw me looking at it and smiled. "Yes, this building is very old. It was used as a boarding school in the 1950s."

"How come it's not anymore?"

"Because the humans were terrified to be in here. They said they saw ghosts and such at night."

"Huh."

We walked on, and Achelois pointed out a few ancient artefacts after seeing my interest in the roof, but I wasn't really listening. We came to a set of huge wooden double doors that really did look like something out of a castle or something. Achelois pushed them open without any difficulty. She smiled at me. "Over the next four years you will gain strength. It doesn't matter that students can't open these doors, because this is really the entrance for humans. We have a quicker way of getting in, around the back."

_Yeah_, I thought. _I'll gain strength over the next four years. If I survive._

We walked through the massive doors and out into a courtyard place. I noticed how my eyes had already accustomed themselves to the darkness. It was probably three or four in the morning.

There were students all over the place. Only a few of them shot curious glances my way, but other than that I was ignored. I guess they were just used to new students. A group of girls walked past, and they all looked at me and giggled, trotting off. I reddened. I was used to girls liking me, but these girls just made me feel self-concious. I looked around again quickly, wondering why I didn't see any guys. But then it suddenly hit me that all the guys just wore their hair really, _really_ long. Would I have to grow my hair? I hoped not. I liked it really short. I didn't want to look like a hippy or something.

Achelois looked at me sharply and, embarrassed, I realized she must have felt my worry and such. Great.

"Professor Chidsey is the teacher for sports in general, though we have a few teachers for specific sports, such as Professor Sharma, who specializes in Equestrian Studies and running. Are you interested in either?"

"I'm alright at running, I guess."

"Well, if you wish you can train with her after school. I'll let you discuss that yourself with her. Professor Chidsey, your mentor, is extremely strong at archery."

I'd never heard of archery at school, except maybe for those snobby, posh boarding schools. Maybe I'd check it out. Sounded fun.

Achelois led me to a big shed-looking building where I could hear a strange, unfamiliar _thwap, thud_ sound.

"William?" Achelois called. The sounds stopped immediately and a tall guy emerged. He was tall with dark hair and green eyes. He was also sweating, and absent-mindedly wiped the beads from his forehead, then smiled at me.

"Hey there. You must be James, right?"

"Yeah." I said.

"James, this is Professor Chidsey, your mentor. I will leave you in his care so he can show you to your dorm. Your roomate Ben can show you around the school after dinner." Achelois said before leaving me with the William guy. He grinned at me, and I couldn't help but grin back.

"Okay. So Achelois likes to be all formal, but you can just call me William. Come on, I'll take you to Ben."

I nodded, distracted and admittedly intimidated by the bow and arrow he held in his hand. He saw me looking, and dropped them immediately.

"Oh, sorry! That's my gift."

"You have a gift for archery?"

"Yeah. I'm just really, really good at it. And I was terrible before I was Marked. Are you good?"

I shook my head, then shrugged. "I've never really tried it."

"Well, maybe you can try after dinner or something, if you want to. We just have to hurry at the moment!"

"Okay."

I followed William to a big, modest stone building and to a room on the fourth floor. The door had the number 43 on it. William knocked on the door and a chubby blond guy opened it.

"Hello, Ben. I'm sure Achelois told you you were getting a new roomate. Well, here he is. James, this is Ben. Ben, this is James."

I smiled politely at him, nervous for the first time since I'd met William. Ben didn't return my smile.

"Well, I'll see you after dinner, James, okay? Come to the field house if you want to try your hand at the whole archery business."

"Yeah, sure," I smiled gratefully at William before he left. Ben left the door open and walked back to his bed. He sat down and proceeded to pick his nose. I walked in. All my stuff from home was on the left side of the room.

"Who brought my stuff?" I asked Ben.

He grunted and shrugged, otherwise completely ignoring me and going on to cut his toenails. At least he used a scissors.


	4. Chapter 4

**I have no school tomorrow and Tuesday XD But don't expect me to be updating any more than I do, I need to do homework and study for Christmas tests :( **

**Again, I'm still a disclaimer and I apologize for Stark being so different. Sorry!**

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"So, what time is dinner?" I asked Ben.

"What time is it now?" he grunted.

I checked my watch. "Ten to five."

"Dinner's in ten minutes then."

"Okay . . . So will we go?"

"Yeah."

Ben got up and stalked off towards the door. I followed him quickly, knowing full well that he wouldn't care or notice if I didn't.

As we walked down the stairs and into the common room, a huge (and I mean seriously huge) black cat ran past us, nearly knocking me down. I shuddered. I hated cats. They annoyed the hell out of me. I was more of a dog person. They were way cooler. I used to have one when I was younger, and he was really great. He was a terrier named Spike and he followed me everywhere. But one night I was walking him and didn't have him on a leash because he was always so good on walks and didn't need one. A cat ran across the road and Spike chased it eagerly, getting hit by a car immediately. I guess he just went by instinct. I was just thankful that it was over quickly.

So anyway, that really contributed to my hatred of cats.

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We walked into a room that had a sign outside that read 'Dining Hall'. It nearly made me laugh out loud. I mean, a _dining hall_? Seriously? Sorta Hogwarts-ish, in my opinion. (What? I like to read.) Ben walked towards the biggest group of people, and they looked like the type who wore hoodies a lot and leaned against pillars to look cool. Great.

"Hey, Ben, who's that guy?"

"Roomate." Was all Ben said.

No one really paid any attention to me after that, deciding I wasn't anything special. I looked around at the other people in the hall. They looked much friendlier. A tall blond girl smiled and walked over to me.

"Hi. I'm Lucy, leader of the Dark Daughters and Sons. My friends and I," she gestured over to a smiling bunch of kids sitting on the other side of the room, "wanted to welcome you to the House of Night. It can be really overwhelming at first, and we were wondering if you'd like to sit with us."

I returned her smile gratefully. "Yeah, thanks."

I followed her to her friends. "This is Katie," Lucy introduced me to a small, dark girl who looked kinda shy. "Daniel," she said, pointing to this blond jock-type guy. "Steve," yet another jock, "And Mariam." Lucy gestured towards the brunette in the corner.

"Hi," I said.

"Hi," they mumbled back.

"So, er, what's your name?" Katie asked me as I sat down.

"Oh, sorry! I'm James, but my friends call me Stark."

"Why Stark?" Daniel said through a mouthful of spaghetti.

"It's my last name."

"Seriously?" Katie said. "Your last name is actually Stark?"

"Yeah."

"Like in that old cowboy movie?"

"Yeah, my dad stupidly decided to call me James. He was a big fan of cowboy stuff."

"So you don't like it?" Lucy asked gently.

I shook my head.

"Well, why don't you change it?"

Change it? What? "What do you mean?"

"Didn't they tell you? When you're Marked you can change your name to whatever you like, because you're sorta making a fresh start, leaving your old life behind. Who's your mentor?"

"William - uh, Professor Chidsey." Changing my name sounded awesome. So did leaving my old life behind.

Steve and Daniel groaned. "Here we go," Steve muttered.

"Ohmigod! _He's _your mentor? Can you ask him to - ?!" I totally zoned out to Lucy, Mariam and Katie's excited chattering about William. Thankfully, Steve smiled at me and said, "You want to get something to eat?"

I nodded quickly.

Steve got up and I followed him to the food bar. So did Daniel, probably just to get away from the girls. They carried on talking, oblivious to our absence.

"Want some advice? Never mention Chidsey around them."

I smiled. "Thanks. Would have been great if you told me that earlier, though."

Steve and Daniel laughed. I got my food and when we went back, the girls had shut up. Well, thank God for that.

We ate in silence then, except for the occasional question about my past. I finished my food quickly as I hadn't eaten in at least twelve hours. I jumped up. "Sorry, but Professor Chidsey told me to meet him in the field house."

"Why?" Lucy asked.

"So I can try archery."

"Oh. You good at it?" Daniel asked.

"I'm not sure, to be honest. He just asked if I wanted to check it out, so I figured why not?"

"True. Well, let us know how it goes. And by the way, don't let Ben annoy you. It's just total bad luck that you got landed with him as a roommate. He hates everyone except his posse over there. You can sit with us from now on if you want."

"Thanks. I really appreciate that."

"No problem."

I'd always been good at making friends. For some reason, people really liked me and girls thought I was hot. Looking back, I feel really stupid knowing that that was all that mattered to me : populartiy. But I had seemingly made some really good friends at my new school.

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William was waiting in the field house, already shooting bows at targets. He heard me come in and spun around. "Oh, hi, James," he said, looking a little spooked.

"Hi," I said.

"So, you still want to try archery?"

I shrugged. "Why not?"

"Okay." He handed me his bow, muttering, "This should be about the right size," and an arrow. He walked me to where he had been standing.

"Now, James, see the way the arrow has three things sticking out? Well, you fit it into the bow so that the different coloured one is pointing out, and the others up and down. Yeah, just like that. It gives the arrow balance, you see. Then you pull back the string and shoot."

_Please hit the centre of the target, _I thought. _That would be so awesome._

The arrow flew from the bow and went straight to the centre of the target. We both stood in stunned silence.

"Wow," William said. "You're good."

"I don't get it. I've never done this before."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah, of course I am."

"Well . . . Maybe you have a gift. Like I do."

"Yeah." I had a gift. Well, that was pretty awesome.

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**Sorry, I know it's kind of a bad ending, but my mom is making me come off now because apparently I'm really tired (I'm not. At all. But you know how parents are).**


	5. Author's Note

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Sorry, this is an Author's Note, I'm just letting you guys know that I AM continuing, I know I'm taking forever but Stolen is my main one so I might not update this til I'm finished my other ones. Thanks for all the reviews, you guys rock =)

Except for Vision girl.. Dude, you should go see a doctor if a fanfic actually makes you vomit. That's not a good sign. And if you really did like Burned and Stolen, you'll know that I don't listen to people who tell me to stop writing because it's something I do for myself, although because of the awesome readers from Burned and Stolen I'm kinda doing it for them, too. But the only time I would ever not continue a story is if I myself thought it sucked. Not because you tell me to. If that's all clear, I'll be moving on.

Don't worry guys, I AM bringing Duch into it, obviously. But come on, do you really expect Stark to get her on his first day? Zoey didn't get Nala on HER first day.

**Besides that, I'll try to update as soon as I can, but that could take a while 'cause as I said, I'm focusing on Stolen at the moment. Oh, and yeah, everyone's known for AGES that the 8th book will be called Awakened, not Stolen, so stop telling me that!! I knew that before Burned even came out, nearly everyone did because PC Cast said it on her blog. So calm down about it, take a deep breath, and accept that I'm not changing the name, I'm sticking with the fake names I put up in one of my A/Ns in Burned. They're Stolen, Burdened, Touched, Cloaked and Wanted. I'm pretty sure I found them on Fan Pop or something, and I'm sticking with them. Okay?**

**Thanks guys =D**

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One more thing.. After Burned (the awesome real one) I'm thinking of changing a couple of things in this one, like, you know, the way Stark's real last name was MacUaillan and stuff. I know none of you guys had a HUGE problem with how I gave him the name James Stark from the start, but I kinda did all along, I wasn't really sure where to go with this one so I think I'll change a couple of things.


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